Also, an added bonus for any StarCraft II players out there - you can now beta test the awesome custom games Blizzard showed off at BlizzCon: Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, and Left 2 Die!

Check out the full Blizzard posts after the break!

Blizzard Posts

..on 2200 Rating PVP Weapons Being Delayed

As previously announced (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1567814533?page=1), Conquest items requiring 2200 rating were made available today, January 25, with the exception of weapons. We plan to make the 2200 weapons available approximately two weeks after the release of patch 4.0.6.

The decision to further delay availability of weapons requiring 2200 rating was not made lightly. Currently very few guilds are clearing PvE content that drops weapons of this caliber, which would make rated Battlegrounds and Arenas the primary source for top-tier weapons. We of course don’t want players who are pursuing PvE content to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvP to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful.

We do have some plans to help avoid similar situations in the future, and we’ll share more details when they become available.

You will get a negative reaction with your decision to delay 2200 arena weapons.You will get a negative overreaction with your decision not to communicate with us about it.But then again, you probably already knew that.

Sometimes, you have to make an unpopular decision, and you take a lot of heat for it. I understand that you guys aren't happy, and I'm sorry about that.

With regard to the weapon delay, as with any change which affects your gameplay, we always prefer to provide advance notice whenever possible, but in some situations it isn't an option. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases.

Some of you may recall that there were times in the past when it was common for the Arenas to be flooded by geared raiders actively engaging in arena matches exclusively to acquire weapons for the sake of defeating PvE content. That's not the intended design for arena rewards (that they be part of PvE progression), and that was a situation that we were hoping to avoid now. Raid content is very challenging currently, and as a direct result, there are fewer top tier weapons floating around. What we didn't want was a 'gold rush' on arenas, which would diffuse the competitive space there as well as give PvE focused players an undue advantage for raid content.

Ultimately, what we really want is parity in the availability of top end PvP and PvE weaponry. We want to see top end PvP and PvE items filtering into the player community at roughly the same time. This delay is an effort to achieve that aforementioned parity in this case.

...on the Paladin Healing Nerf Actually Being a Buff

Related change: now increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 10%. (down from 15%)

Right, kind of. We discovered that Conviction (which can give up to a 9% healing bonus) was broken. It affected paladin self heals, but not healing other targets. Since we think that paladin healing throughput is in an overall good place we didn't want a 9% bonus sticking around. So we fixed Conviction and reduced the Holy passive, Walk in the Light, from 15% to 10%. Which actually does end up with a net 4% gain overall, assuming Conviction has near 100% uptime, which isn't too unreasonable.

Since it was applied in a hotfix the Walk in the Light tooltip won't be updated until 4.0.6.

...on Tabard Storage Woes

Ok seriously... I have roughly 30 tabards and it takes up my whole main bank space, can we have a "Tabard Tab" in the bank that you could buy for like 1k gold and then you put all your tabards in? because this is ridiculous.

This is something we've been looking into for a while, and we're confident that we'll be able to implement a feature sometime in the future that gives players a better storage solution for their tabards. We're not sure if that feature will be a cosmetic tab or a drop-down list similar to titles just yet, though; there's still several factors that we need to consider carefully (certain tabards have on-use abilities, for example, which makes storing them a bit more complicated) before we can settle on the best course of action.

A 75 slot tabard only bag and bank slot doesn't sound any more complicated than a 32 slot mining bag.

Is that really the most elegant solution, though? It might be quickest and simplest, but that doesn't mean there aren't better alternatives available. If we can implement a type of storage that's integrated into the character UI and doesn't take up extra bank space, then that would be ideal.

That option might not be technically possible due to the way some tabards work, but it's something we're investigating.

Are you referring to an appearance tab for cosmetic gear options?

No, but I can see the confusion. I just mean an additional tab that's superficial or non-essential (the literal definition of "cosmetic").

For this, give us a huge bank slot or bag or keyring equivalent and then make something pointlessly complex if you wish.

We're not trying to over complicate the situation, but if we're looking at adding a new feature, we want to make sure it's meaningful and appropriate for the game in the long-term. (Or, you know, at least try to.)

Right now, we're considering a variety of options because we agree that tabard storage would be great, and some of those options extend beyond simply adding another bank slot -- not because they're complex, but because we believe they'll make the most sense and feel the best when you're in game.

Exactly this. And I wish that Blizzard would start recognizing it.

We're not against interim solutions on principle by any means, especially if we feel they're worthwhile. It's just that we have to tread lightly and always be mindful of what happens to those stopgaps once the final product is released.

..on the Inevitable Demise of PVP Double 2-Piece Bonuses

Right now some hybrid classes benefit from wearing a pair of 2 piece set bonuses in PvP instead of their 4 piece bonus. We don't much like that behavior though, and we're going to eventually make the two bonuses exclusive so you can only ever have one 2 piece bonus at a time. We're not going to make that change in 4.0.6 as we realize some people have spent a lot of points to buy into the double-2 piece bonuses. However, it is likely we'll make the change at the start of the next PvP season.

...on Tradeskill Reagent Justice Point Costs

They're definitely not cost effective and certainly not meant for everyone. Even still, there are scores of people out there with large excesses of Justice Points, with no need (or ability) to obtain more, and nothing to spend them on. This provides an excellent alternative for a select portion of players.

For everyone else who isn't concerned with the Justice Point cap or how to spend them, these vendors can be disregarded. They're not meant to replace the activity of farming for tradeskill materials for the general populace.

Everything Else

Check out the full blog post for a quick summary of each custom game as well as some basic instructions on how to play.

Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, and Left 2 Die, three new Blizzard-made custom games for StarCraft II, are now available for beta testing on Battle.net. While these custom games are still under development and we don't yet have a release date to share, we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to test them out and give feedback before they're officially released.

...

To play the beta versions of Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, or Left 2 Die, simply go to the Multiplayer tab in StarCraft II and look for the custom games window. A few of these games have more than one difficulty setting, so select the level of challenge that's best for you. We hope you enjoy them, and we're looking forward to hearing what you think.

Comments

Comment by ArgentSun

on 2011/01/25 21:45:04

So I got to play Starjeweled and The Auir Chef. Starjeweled is meh... it's exactly what you would expect of Bejeweled, except with overpowered Colossi. The Auir Chef was a lot of fun though, I enjoyed it tremendously - and I won the first game I ever played!

It plays out in three rounds, each one allowing you to cook three different dishes with the round's special ingredient (pear, rainbow, and ultralisk for me, may be random). There are various ingredients around the map, you collect those, combine them with the special ingredient you must also collect (and let me tell you, collecting ultralisks is not easy!). One of the recipes gives you a few points, but drops a useful item in your inventory; the second one is worth more points and teaches you some ability you can use to hinder the other chefs; the other one just gives a lot of points. It's up to you to decide what you want to cook. The winner is, of course, the one with the most points at the end.

Comment by Interest

Comment by Hunterkip

on 2011/01/26 00:31:42

if i wanted to pvp , i would have joined a pvp server ! pvp is crap, and i don't like that i'm forced into it to get gear. thus sayeth the healer " got band-aides?"

Hate to break it to you, but PvP doesn't happen on a PvP server. All that happens is ganking, 1v1 skirmishes that are over in 2 seconds (thank you, horrific sub-80 balance) and night elf hunters demolishing the crossroads for 3 hours. Even then, that doesn't matter. World PvP doesn't get you 2200+ rating weapons, so I don't know what you're on about.

If you wanted to PvP, you'd click the "Queue for Random Battleground" button.

Comment by WhytePanther

on 2011/01/26 00:59:29

So... Walk in the Light is being nerfed to make up for conviction being fixed... That's fine. But don't the 4.0.6 patch notes show all Paladin heals being increased in cost by 10% due to conviction being fixed? Shouldn't do both.

Comment by Interest

on 2011/01/26 01:00:51

So... Walk in the Light is being nerfed to make up for conviction being fixed... That's fine. But don't the 4.0.6 patch notes show all Paladin heals being increased in cost by 10% due to conviction being fixed? Shouldn't do both.

False, I think the paladin heals being increased in cost is in regards to something different.

Comment by Psychospy

on 2011/01/26 01:13:21

For the tabards they could implement something similar to the keyring idea but call it a 'coat hanger' and have it accessible from your bag window.

Comment by Sweetscot

on 2011/01/26 01:29:42

For the tabards they could implement something similar to the keyring idea but call it a 'coat hanger' and have it accessible from your bag window.

I really think that that is the best AND easiest fix. They'd stay items, could still have an on-use, but wouldn't be taking up bank/bag space. It's also obviously tech/code they already have rather than it being something new they have to figure out.

Comment by Vurrashko

on 2011/01/26 05:23:33

So at least 4 people in these comments stated their positive opinion about the keyring-like- Tabard storage being a good idea and should be doable since the code already exists. Above all, the blueposter quoted somebody who brought up the keyring variant in the first place.Please Blizzard, go ahead and just do it, if you decide against the 75 Slot Tabard Bag and denying drop-down Tabard menue in the character pane. You can change it anyway afterwards if you then have a better idea how to solve it but unless this happens, just do it!

One of the most annoying things is pooling great ideas back into the corner of a dusty drawer and waiting for the "ultimate" thing to come by, which might eventually never happen. There is no such thing as perfection, there is only an approach to optimal. Just do it!

Comment by lankybrit

on 2011/01/26 10:50:15

Here's another vote for the keyring type solution for the Tabard problem. LOL I thought it was only me who was having trouble with all the Tabards in my back.

Cheers.

Comment by Glom

on 2011/01/26 16:14:49

We of course don’t want players who are pursuing PvE content to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvP to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful.

I'm just waiting for them to say: "The (insert big dragon name here) will not be dropping any weapons for a few months until the next arena season because we don't want PvP players to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvE to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful."

Comment by Monday

on 2011/01/26 16:19:36

Keyring tabard solution = good idea.

+1 votes.

Comment by adame

on 2011/01/27 01:36:57

I'm just waiting for them to say: "The (insert big dragon name here) will not be dropping any weapons for a few months until the next arena season because we don't want PvP players to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvE to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful."

Score!

Comment by Scotia

on 2011/01/27 09:44:36

I'd rather see tabards on a tab like mounts and companions.

Comment by Vurrashko

on 2011/01/27 17:55:55

I'd rather see tabards on a tab like mounts and companions.

I'd be fine with that either... just as long as they do SOMEthing :(

Comment by Aislinge

on 2011/01/27 20:17:57

I agree with the idea to manage Tabards, Festive Sets, Tier Sets etc with tabs like Pets and Mounts.

The sets become a 'learnt' thing - when you equip them, you learn them and they get stashed away.

In the Equipment Manager or Outfitter, with each item slot, you can select an item in bag or 'on file' to wear.

It will effectively mean that you carry them with you all the time. The only issue I can see is what about durability?

Possibly they may be able to make it that durability will only impact what your wearing as opposed to the current whatever you're carrying (can anyone confirm if that's still the case?)

The benefits will definitely be more people going back and farming for those gorgeous old teir sets and freeing up bag space!

Comment by MorecofRivendare

on 2011/01/29 11:19:21

The dropdown tab idea for tabards is what I'd like; that way I could wear my Undercity Tabard (my personal favorite) when not indungeons and then switch to any of the rep tabards as soon as I enter one without having to worry about bag space or any such problems.